The Real Truth Behind Flu Shots -- And Why So Few People Get the Flu During the Summer...

November 25, 2008|90,091views

Dr. John Cannell is the physician in the first video. He is the founder of the Vitamin D Council and one of the more knowledgeable vitamin D experts out there. He has been a primary resource for me in helping me formulate my understanding of vitamin D.

Only about 1,000 people die directly from the flu virus in the United States each year. While the government claims 36,000 -- the remaining 35,000 deaths are caused by diseases like pneumonia that may follow the flu.

But there's no clear scientific connection between the flu and these more serious afflictions. That means most of the time a flu shot has little impact in actually preventing death.

Barbara Loe Fisher, head of the National Vaccine Information Center, says that the repeated references to 36,000 seems to be an attempt to scare people into getting the shot. Fisher has a new book on the safety issues with vaccines, "Vaccines, Autism & Chronic Inflammation: The New Epidemic."

Her concerns have led her to look at alternatives. One alternative favored by a number of physicians is vitamin D. Dr. John Cannell, executive director of the Vitamin D Council, suggests the reason we even have a flu season is because our vitamin D levels drop, which takes place naturally as we get less and less sun with the approach of winter.

Cannell suggests babies get 1,000 units of vitamin D a day, and those 2 and older get 2,000 units. Many adults and some children need more than that.

Vitamin D Dose Recommendations

Age

Dosage

Below 5

35 units per pound per day

Age 5 - 10

2500 units

Age 18 - 30

5000 units

Pregnant Women

5000 units

WARNING:
There is no way to know if the above recommendations are correct. The ONLY way to know is to test your blood. You might need 4-5 times the amount recommended above. Ideally your blood level of 25 OH D should be 60ng/ml.

Protect Your Right to Informed Consent and Defend Vaccine Exemptions

With all the uncertainty surrounding the safety and efficacy of vaccines, it's critical to protect your right to make independent health choices and exercise voluntary informed consent to vaccination. It is urgent that everyone in America stand up and fight to protect and expand vaccine informed consent protections in state public health and employment laws. The best way to do this is to get personally involved with your state legislators and educating the leaders in your community.

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.

National vaccine policy recommendations are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level. It is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the greatest impact. It is critical for EVERYONE to get involved now in standing up for the legal right to make voluntary vaccine choices in America because those choices are being threatened by lobbyists representing drug companies, medical trade associations, and public health officials, who are trying to persuade legislators to strip all vaccine exemptions from public health laws.

Signing up for NVIC's free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org gives you immediate, easy access to your own state legislators on your Smart Phone or computer so you can make your voice heard. You will be kept up-to-date on the latest state bills threatening your vaccine choice rights and get practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community. Also, when national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips.

Share Your Story with the Media and People You Know

If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury, or death, please talk about it. If we don't share information and experiences with one another, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.

I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the "other side" of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.

We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies or public health officials promoting forced use of a growing list of vaccines to dominate the conversation about vaccination. The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than "statistically acceptable collateral damage" of national one-size-fits-all mandatory vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn't be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.

Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More

I encourage you to visit the website of the non-profit charity, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), at www.NVIC.org:

NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries, and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.

Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment and sanctions by doctors, employers, and school and health officials for making independent vaccine choices.

Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One That Will Listen and Care

If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don't want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.

However, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they're starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.

How Vitamin D Performance Testing Can Help Optimize Your Health

A robust and growing body of research clearly shows that vitamin D is absolutely critical for good health and disease prevention. Vitamin D affects your DNA through vitamin D receptors (VDRs), which bind to specific locations of the human genome. Scientists have identified nearly 3,000 genes that are influenced by vitamin D levels, and vitamin D receptors have been found throughout the human body.

Is it any wonder then that no matter what disease or condition is investigated, vitamin D appears to play a crucial role? This is why I am so excited about the D*Action Project by GrassrootsHealth. Dr. Heaney is the Research Director of GrassrootsHealth and is part of the design of the D*action Project as well as analysis of the research findings. GrassrootsHealth shows how you can take action today on known science with a consensus of experts without waiting for institutional lethargy. It has shown how by combining the science of measurement (of vitamin D levels) with the personal choice of taking action and, the value of education about individual measures that one can truly be in charge of their own health.

In order to spread this health movement to more communities, the project needs your involvement. This was an ongoing campaign during the month of February, and will become an annual event.

To participate, simply purchase the D*Action Measurement Kit and follow the registration instructions included. (Please note that 100 percent of the proceeds from the kits go to fund the research project. I do not charge a single dime as a distributor of the test kits.)

As a participant, you agree to test your vitamin D levels twice a year during a five-year study, and share your health status to demonstrate the public health impact of this nutrient. There is a $65 fee every six months for your sponsorship of this research project, which includes a test kit to be used at home, and electronic reports on your ongoing progress. You will get a follow up email every six months reminding you "it's time for your next test and health survey."

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Close to 150 million doses of flu vaccine have been produced this year, which is the highest number ever available. Yet, the chances of a flu shot being effective in any given year are about as high as your chances of pulling a needle from a haystack. This is because flu shots only protect against certain strains of the flu virus. These strains mutate rapidly, and scientists can only make educated guesses about which strains will be most prevalent this year.

As you might suspect, often they are way off base. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states:

“In some years when vaccine and circulating strains were not well-matched, no vaccine effectiveness can be demonstrated in some studies, even in healthy adults. It is not possible in advance of the influenza season to predict how well the vaccine and circulating strains will be matched, and how that match may affect the degree of vaccine effectiveness.”

This does not bode well for the millions of Americans who are being lulled into a false sense of security that getting a flu shot is all they need to do to prevent the flu.

Flu Shots’ Poor Rates of Effectiveness

It really amazes me how effective the drug companies have been at manipulating the culture to actually let them sell these toxic, ineffective and expensive options in pharmacies, airports, college campuses, grocery stores and countless other outlets.

The truth is that:

• Giving young children flu shots appeared to have no impact on flu-related doctor visits or hospitalizations during two recent flu seasons, according to a study published in the October issue of the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.

• A study published in the Lancet just found that influenza vaccination was NOT associated with a reduced risk of pneumonia in older people. Why is this important? Because 35,000 of the 36,000 “flu” deaths the government claims happen each year are actually caused by diseases like pneumonia, and NOT the flu.

• Research published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine also confirms that there has been no decrease in deaths from influenza and pneumonia, despite the fact that vaccination coverage among the elderly has increased from 15 percent in 1980 to 65 percent now.

I can’t imagine anyone signing up to receive this vaccine even if they were paid to do it, yet tens of millions are conned into thinking money spent on this shot is worthwhile! If people only understood the facts, I doubt many would rationally decide to receive this shot.

Sadly, throwing away the money spent on the flu vaccine is the least of your worries, should you decide to get a flu shot.

What Exactly is in a Flu Shot?

Before you decide to get vaccinated, it would serve you well to find out.

Each dose of these flu vaccines contains more than 250 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s safety limit for mercury.

By now, most people are well aware that children and fetuses are most at risk of damage from this neurotoxin, as their brains are still developing. Yet the CDC still recommends that children over 6 months, and pregnant women, receive the flu vaccine each year. This is just inexcusable.

In addition to mercury, flu vaccines also contain other hazardous ingredients like:

How many people do you think would knowingly sit down and allow themselves, or their children, to be injected with:

• Formaldehyde?

• Aluminum?

• Mercury?

• Antifreeze?

It’s time word got out that if you got a flu shot, you did exactly that. And for what? Even if you get a flu shot, you can still get the flu, or flu-like symptoms, because it’s anyone’s guess which flu viruses will be in your area.

The powers that be have done an excellent job of instilling fear into the population so they believe that they must get a shot to stay healthy.

What REALLY Works for the Flu

Getting appropriate amounts of sunshine or UV exposure through a safe tanning bed (or taking a vitamin D supplement when you can’t get healthy amounts of UVB exposure) is one of my KEY preventive strategies against the cold and flu, as it has an extraordinary strengthening effect on your immune system.

Although supplements are clearly inferior to sunlight exposure or safe tanning beds, I am becoming more convinced of the value of vitamin D supplements as they are less potentially toxic than my initial impression, and they are certainly more convenient and less expensive than a tanning bed.

If you are in an area that does not allow you to get adequate sun exposure, and you don’t have access to a safe tanning bed, adults should take 5,000 to 10,000 IU of vitamin D per day, depending on body weight. For children, 2,000 IU per day is typically adequate.

And, please, think long and hard about whether you want to waste your money on a toxin-laden shot that likely won’t work to prevent the flu. Personally, I have not received a flu shot nor had the flu in over 20 years because I use lifestyle strategies to keep the flu (and other illnesses) at bay.

The good news is that you can do them too, and drastically improve your chances of staying healthy right on through flu season:

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This
product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you
are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your
physician before using this product.

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